How to get feathers grow back with "rowdy" rooster?

[Kaiser Fertilizer]

I've seen plenty of evidence that my 6 road Island red hens and 1 rooster are molting, But I'm worried about their backs. The rooster loves to mate, and a few of my hens have bare backs and upper parts of the wing, very red at times. I bought a few hen aprons but they don't seem to do anything. I see that few of their feathers started to grow back, but they haven't really grown much more. Should I take off the aprons and let them grow it back? Or should I keep them on so the rooster doesn't scratch them up more? I heard someone talk about separating the rooster from the hens but how do I go about doing that? I only have one coop so can he not sleep with them? How does that work?

I'm also worried about a certain hen that's had a bad cut from the rooster a long time now, which hasn't been able to fully heal because the hen apron fell off 2 or 3 times and it reopened the wound again. I have noticed that the rooster hasn't been as "rowdy" as he was this spring, or even compared to the past few weeks, things are getting colder. Still, my chickens have been molting for a month or two and some of their backs have been bare since late spring. What should I do?

I don't plan on getting rid of or adding anyone, so if seperating the rooster is what I have to do I guess it's what I have to do.

 

[Mrs. K]

Do your girls love him? If so, just wait. They will finish molting, the feathers will come back in, and they will look beautiful. There is a good chance that the rooster will improve his technique, and the flock will not have as much damage as last year.

Bare backs tend to bother people more than the birds. However, if the birds try and avoid him, flee from him, well then a time out won't hurt anything, and may very well help.

Mrs K

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I've seen plenty of evidence that my 6 road Island red hens and 1 rooster are molting, But I'm worried about their backs. The rooster loves to mate, and a few of my hens have bare backs and upper parts of the wing, very red at times. I bought a few hen aprons but they don't seem to do anything. I see that few of their feathers started to grow back, but they haven't really grown much more. Should I take off the aprons and let them grow it back? Or should I keep them on so the rooster doesn't scratch them up more? I heard someone talk about separating the rooster from the hens but how do I go about doing that? I only have one coop so can he not sleep with them? How does that work?

I'm also worried about a certain hen that's had a bad cut from the rooster a long time now, which hasn't been able to fully heal because the hen apron fell off 2 or 3 times and it reopened the wound again. I have noticed that the rooster hasn't been as "rowdy" as he was this spring, or even compared to the past few weeks, things are getting colder. Still, my chickens have been molting for a month or two and some of their backs have been bare since late spring. What should I do?

I don't plan on getting rid of or adding anyone, so if seperating the rooster is what I have to do I guess it's what I have to do.

separating the rooster will be your best bet. find some plastic hens for him to mate inside his bachlor pad. if you ever come up with bully problems, good for him!
that's what we did with Chanticleer.

 

[Sussex19]

In my experience, hen aprons don't do much if put on once their backs are already bare.
What I did was separate the rooster, and then once the feather had grown back put an apron on. This worked well, and they are still nice and covered in feathers half a year later.
You could have a bit of a think if there's any way that you could partition off part of the run.